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OOJ's crazy-long Briar hack-fest

September 29, 2015 (Night)

Exercise Type: Run

Weather: beautiful --> dark!

Comments:
Had this idea to do a fun "Barkley Route" hunt, but to see if we could quickly clear this old, crappy trail, which had a shitload of briars (blackberry bushes, which grow outrageously). Lewis was cool about it, so he encouraged us to bring several pairs of trimmers + loppers, which he carried in a backpack!

Hunters: me, CA, Lewis, Matt, MrR, Emily

Ran down to AMazon, then up the road, up old Dillard. Ran the trail up the west side of Baldy, then got onto Blue Ribbon trail. Unfortunately, it was already getting a bit dark...not good. But thankfully Lewis and Matt brought headlamps. Trail finding and clearing was minimal on Blue Ribbon - this random trail on the east side of Baldy - looks like some had actually cleared it!

At the top of Baldy, we encountered an old guy up there, sitting on a bench, with a backpack and trek poles, sipping a Bud Light with Lime. Well...as we were descending Blue Ribbon, he rolls up behind us...running! Then, without warning, he just bombs down into the woods, moving like Kilian with his poles! He cut a switch and got in front of me, equally surprised as we were that we were running this trail.

I was excited and intrigued, so I ran after him, and he surged and basically dropped me, lolz!

The trail popped out to the wide double track in the wooded area near LCC. They'd been doing some weird logging ops in there, interestingly. Ran north, then back west toward "Dan-o's Razor Briars" - about a 400m segment of nasty briars that led us back toward Baldy and Spring Blvd.

Once we got there, we got to lopping...but it was BAD. Long story short: it took FOREVER for us to work even a walk-able path - briars EVERYWHERE. All of us were bloody. We logged a 53-minute mile! The mile+ it took to get back to Spring was well over an hour. Tons of complaining from some of the less-gritty runners (who do next-to no trail work). Folks like me, CA and Lewis actually had fun clearing out the trail, which was good.

Got to the road nearly two hours into the run, then jogged the two miles back. 2:21 total "run" time, probably making it the longest in hunt history.

Good beers, courtesy CA, afterward: Paulaner Octoberfest and Pallet Jack!!